Hightower Finds Out
by Brown Eyes Parker
Summary: Madeleine Hightower was celebrating her one year anniversary with her husband when she saw them again on the beach in Florida. They were standing close to each other, acting for all the world to see like they were in love. Takes place directly after Bluebird. Rated T. AU-ish.


**Hightower Finds Out**

**A Mentalist Story**

**By Brown Eyes Parker**

**Author's Note: **

**This was inspired by the end of Red-Listed, when Hightower said goodbye to Jane and told him not to get in touch with her until after they'd caught Red John. It obviously never happened. So, I was inspired to write a one-shot where she sees them together. Spoilers for 6x22. **

**Rated: T**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**.**

Madeleine Hightower was celebrating her one year anniversary with her husband when she saw them again on the beach in Florida. They were standing close to each other, acting for all the world to see like they were in love. She had to stop for a moment, thinking her eyes were playing tricks on her. Thinking that maybe she had imagined them and their closeness.

Yes, they had always been closer than two agents probably should have been and she had held her breath, waiting for the moment where they would crash into each other at the speed of light or run off together, leaving real life far behind them as they fell into each other. But nothing had happened except for real life and they had drifted apart and together like something from a tragedy.

So, she watched them that day at the beach as Reggie got her another margarita, caught up in their peacefulness and the way they were looking at each other. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight in front of her. She was getting to experience the one thing she had never dreamed she would get to imagine.

Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon as something more than friends and partners.

Finally.

She didn't dare go to them, didn't dare break the beautiful spell that seemed to be cast upon the warm beach.

"What are you looking at?" Reggie asked, breaking her from her captivity of thought.

"Them," Madeleine replied, sucking the juice from the lime garnish before licking the salt off the rim of her glass.

Reggie looked at them and furrowed his eyebrows. "Do you know them?" he asked.

"I did once," she answered. "A long time ago when I was a different person from the girl you know today. I didn't think this would ever happen."

"You didn't think you'd ever run into them again?" Reggie inquired.

Madeleine sighed and sipped the electric green cocktail through her straw, nodding and dabbing at her lips with her pointer-finger. "No, I didn't think I'd ever see them again. Not really. But mostly, I never thought I would see them _together_."

Understanding dawned on Reggie's face and he smiled at his bride. "Oh, I see."

"They danced around each other for so long; they pretended that they didn't have feelings for each other. . . I think they started to believe the lies they were trying to tell to the world. More than the world believed their lies, anyways."

Reggie looked at the pair walking along the shoreline and frowned. "What do you mean, Mad? Looking at them closely, it almost would seem like these two have been together forever."

"They have been," Madeleine answered. "In the literal sense of the word. They were partners at my old job. . ."

"When you were director back in Sacramento?" Reggie asked.

"Yes," Madeleine replied, she laughed. "Back then everybody always thought they were together. There was even an office pool. . . _I _wasn't involved with it, naturally. I didn't even think they should have been together because it was against the rules. But she was the only one who could control him then, so I turned a blind eye to whatever I thought was going on."

"Which wasn't anything, obviously."

"Obviously." Madeleine admitted. "Until today. . . I wonder how long they've been together."

"Are you going to ask them?" Reggie asked.

"_No!" _Madeleine answered. "I think it will be best just to leave them alone."

"Even though you're _dying _of curiosity?"

"I am _not _dying of curiosity!" Madeleine said, eyeing him warily.

"Well, stop staring at them then," Reggie answered, smirking at her.

She stole another glance at them. They had stopped at the surf; he had wrapped his arms around her waist and buried his face in her hair.

It had to be a new relationship, Madeleine mused to herself, and he was acting like he couldn't believe she was actually with him.

She wanted to know the circumstances to this new chapter in her old co-workers stories. But she couldn't bring herself to get to her feet and approach them. Because her not wanting to intrude far outweighed her desire to satisfy her nagging curiosity.

Madeleine looked at Reggie and he smiled at her.

"You're not going to ask them, are you?"

She shook her head. "I don't even think they know I'm here. And I hate to interrupt them. Really I don't."

"Pretend they're not here then," Reggie suggested. "It'll just be you and me and the beach. Just like it was supposed to be."

Madeleine closed her eyes as he found her favorite spot on her neck. "Okay," she agreed as she wrapped her arms around him.

**.**

She didn't think about them again until dinnertime when they both came into the Bluebird restaurant, holding hands and still smiling. Madeleine vaguely wondered if their cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

Again, she couldn't take her eyes off of them. Lisbon was glowing in a short cocktail dress, the color of jade. Jane, still wearing the same pants and shirt from the beach, looked handsomer than ever in the light of a purple and pink sunlight.

"They do make a gorgeous pair," Reggie said.

Madeleine nodded, looking away from them for just a nano-second. "Yes, yes they do."

When she glanced back, she noticed they were both looking at her and whispering to each other. She smiled at them and lifted her glass of champagne to them like a toast. There was a beat and then they returned her smile and both acknowledged her with a nod.

That was all. They didn't come over to the table and speak to them and neither she or Reggie went over to invite them to join them. Jane and Lisbon were respecting her privacy and the request she had left them with the last time they had met.

Although, she wouldn't have really minded speaking to them again now that Red John was gone and the looming threat had disappeared with them. But she still didn't want to interrupt their honeymoon stage either. She had been there once too and she had loathed anybody who had dared enter her happy little bubble.

She looked at them one more time, memorizing the way they looked together for a rainy day and was content that they had finally found each other and that the two lonely people she had known once upon a time ago were finally _really _happy.

Even though she didn't know the story, it was enough.

**_The End_**

Author's Note II:

**I hope you'll tell me what you guys think of this story. I'm thinking this might become a series, but I'm not making any promise since I am writing my new multi-chapter. Which will be up starting tomorrow. Be on the lookout for it. And leave a review to tell me what you thought of this, if you'd like.**

**Happy New Year!**

**Lots of love,**

**Holly, 1/1/2015_**


End file.
